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This is a comprehensive book on the wide ranging concerns of the women’s movements in India from a left perspective. The author’s active involvement in the women’s struggles adds to the strength of her narrative. It weaves together experiences and critical observations to create a work of great theoretical and practical import. It should be of great value to those interested in women’s studies and the general studies on South Asia. It contains a wealth of information on women’s lives and their multiple struggles.

Excerpt from the Foreword by Aijaz Ahmad

It is that rare book, wise and modest, which informs, instructs, inspires – but with the lightest of touch. Realistic enough to know that for the vast majority of women in India the struggle is for sheer survival against all odds; visionary enough to know that the battle for survival itself shall not be won without winning the battle for emancipation from all kinds of oppression and exploitation. At the heart of that battle for emancipation in our country are the women of our villages and our working classes. This book is written from their standpoint.

Contents

Foreword by Aijaz Ahmadxi
Preface

I Multiple Struggles

The Multiple Struggles of Women

Globalising Resistance Against Globalisation

Socialism and Women’s Emancipation

II Globalisation and Survival Issues

Neo-Liberal Agendas and Rural Women’s Concerns

Globalisation and Women’s Work in Non-Agricultural Sector

Fighting for a Basic Human Right

For an Alternative Food Policy

The Feminisation of Poverty in Bihar

Budgeting Women Out in the Year of Empowerment

Gender Budgeting

No Jobs Ahead

III On Political Participation

Some Issues Concerning Women’s Reservation Bill

Reservation Rites – Women as Political Extras

OBCs, Minorities and the Women’s Bill

Biology, Ideology and Women in Politics

Vote for Policies, Not Gender

Women Chief Ministers

National Commission, or the National Omission of Women?

IV Communalism and Women

On the Uniform Civil Code

The Hedgewar Rekha for Women

Democracy on Trial – Gujarat Sends Alarm Bells Ringing

Dangerous Experiments

Apologise or Go

Investigation as Collusion

Kanpur – BJP Government to Blame

V Violence Against Women

Liberalisation, Communalism and Struggle Against Violence

On Women’s Unity and Citizenship Rights

Against the Politics of Terror

Remembering the Melavalavu Six

Delivering Anything but Justice

Some Issues in the Struggles Against Witch Hunting

Price of Honour

Dowry Related Violence

Domesticating Women the Saffron Way

Coercive Family Planning

Planning vs. Population Control

RU-486

VI A Personal Remembering

A Personal Remembering – MH, 1963-662

Cover image commemorates the martyrdom of Ram Pari, a dalit agricultural worker of village Runni Saidpur in Sitamarhi District, Bihar. A member of AIDWA, she was killed in police firing on 11 August 1998 during an agitation for flood relief. The image was drawn by the village people and presented to
the author who was present at Ram Pari’s funeral.

Brinda Karat belongs to the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), the largest women’s organisation in India, with 8 million members. She was its General Secretary from 1993 to 2004 and its most well-known spokesperson. Brinda... Read more